CrimeaPRESS reports:
Dry sand is one of the most common and inexpensive building materials. However, market prices for it differ quite greatly, and the main reasons for this are not always trade markups and “mark-ups” of intermediaries, as many people think. There are at least 5 objective factors on which the price of dry sand.
1. Extraction technologies
Sand is mined in two different ways: dry (open) and wet (closed). The first type primarily includes the extraction of quarry and gully sand using excavators, dredgers, as well as quarry conveyors or conveyor belts. The material, as a rule, lies shallowly in the form of extensive layers, so extraction in this case does not cause any particular difficulties and is relatively inexpensive. Another thing is “wet” technology. It involves the extraction of this material from the bottom of rivers, lakes or seas. In this case, more complex equipment is used, such as draglines, dredgers and dredgers, hydraulic hammers, as well as barges or pontoons. The technology is quite expensive, which leads to a higher price for river and, especially, sea sand.
So: the price of dry sand mined in quarries is lower than from the bottom of reservoirs.
2. Sand purity
In this case, everything is simple. The less foreign impurities such as clay, silt, organic and other sediments in the extracted material, the higher the price of dry sand. The purity of sand is especially important in the manufacture of finishing building mixtures, in sandblasting works, in the manufacture of glass, etc. That is why, if the extracted sand has a critical amount of impurities, it is washed, which is another technological stage in the production of this material, influencing its final price.
Obviously, washed sand is more expensive.
3. Sand fraction
A fundamental role in determining the price of dry sand is its fractionation, which determines the grain size. That is why one of the technological stages is sifting sand through different mesh sieves, which ensure the material is sorted into fractions. For the production of paving slabs or masonry mixtures, fractions of 4-5 mm are often sufficient, and for finishing work — 0.2-1 mm. The most popular product is fractionated sand in mixtures of 0.1-0.63, 0.5-1, 0.63-2.0 and 1.0-5.0 mm.
Fractionation requires additional costs, so sifted sand is more expensive, and the price of the material in unsifted — mixed form is much lower.
4. Logistics
Another important factor influencing the price of dry sand is transportation costs, namely the distance from the deposit to the manufacturer and from the manufacturer to the consumer. Delivery is usually carried out by dump trucks and other types of cargo equipment, and if large quantities of material need to be transferred, then rail or water transport is used, which is more expensive.
Naturally, all these factors significantly affect the final cost of the product.
5. Amount of sand
Just like any other building materials, the price of dry sand decreases as the packaging size increases. For example, in Moscow the average price of dry fractionated sand in a 25 kg bag is about 200 to 250 rubles. depending on factions, whereas, for example, a company «Malachite» sells the same sand for 2500-3300 per ton. It is easy to calculate that the difference in price is almost double.
In conclusion, we can conclude that sand should be selected based on the range of tasks to be solved and, as a result, taking into account the extraction technology, purity, fractionation and required volume.
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